Yeah, we play very part time so we don't get on each other's nerves. Oh yeah. Oh, it's gonna be. Yeah.
Hello and welcome to WNC Original Music Episode 171, the Moonshine Theory episode. This week, very happy to have Stephen Evans, Stephen Evans and the True Grits. The True Grits have existed since 2014. Their first album was called Something to Bleed, have an EP called Under the Bridge, and we're talking tonight about their most recent release, Buzz of Bees.
Buzz of Bees is a variety, kind of a variety album. It's got a lot of influences, of course, Folk Rock, which is what the True Grits are known for, but also has a few Latin, Folk and Vaudeville kind of influences as well. And you're gonna hear Stephen Evans talk about that on this episode. You can find the True Grits at StephenEvinzMusic.com and also on all the streaming sites, which you can find links to in the show notes.
And stick around because later in the episode, we're gonna have a review of the new album by Josh Gray as well. But right now, here is Stephen Evans and the True Grits. So winning the day, I was inspired by the Women's March that happened early on in the Trump administration. And it made me think about what women go through on a daily basis and what they, not just regarding man, but just in life in general.
And it kind of made me think everybody has their thing that they're going through and never know what's going on with them. And just to give people room to be who they are and really go through what they need to go through. So that's basically just of that song. And it just made the Women's March just inspired me to think about, consider what women go through on a daily basis.
Have you gotten much feedback from women about this that maybe know the background of that? Not really, because I really haven't gone into depth anywhere else as far as telling them what it truly means and what I was inspired by. I did post something on Facebook about it, but with Facebook's algorithms, I don't really, it's hard to get much response about things. Right.
It really sucks. Pretty much. Just talk real quick about the recording of the album as a whole. The album is called Buzz of Bees.
And it's out now. Correct. It's out in the online form, the digital realm, CDs and vinyl coming soon. But we recorded it at Side House Records here in Asheville, which is owned by Josh Phillips, Derek Johnson and Lee Allen.
And they've all been in, you mama's big cate booty band at one point. Josh Phillips is now on his own doing his own solo stuff. But they opened that studio a year or two ago and have slowly been building that up. And it was engineered by Julian Dryer, who is the head engineer at Echo Mountain studio in town.
And it was a fun process because we had never recorded professionally for our music, our past two albums we recorded in our home studio basically. And so it was much, it was a really good experience to record with professionals that know what they're doing and make it sound a lot better. Did it take getting used to getting used to? Yes, at first, because we had never used a click track before.
And we tried to use a click track in the studio and we just couldn't do it. We get thrown off by it. And so we have the click track starting us off with the tempo. So it would count us off.
And then we turned it off while we were playing and we just tried to pick the best takes that didn't rush or slow down. But it was a really good experience just learning how it all works. And Julian's very fast on the editing and making things sound good. That's probably the oldest song of all the ones that are on the new record.
I wrote that I think in 2016. And we've been playing it live for a long time. That's that. I mean, and so it was a best rehearsed song since we didn't play it so long.
But that song is about basically going into the woods and getting lost and just being out in nature, not lost literally, but figuratively. And forgetting about your problems through day to day problems and just letting all that stuff go and enjoying nature. And there's lots of play on words with leaves and and my gosh, drawing a blank. But it's just I just really like the imagery creating an imagery with that song.
And you know, we got a lot of nature around us in Asheville. So it was easy to reference that. Sorry, Mike's trying to fall down here. No worries.
Tell me about the band, the grits. We got me on rhythm acoustic guitar and we have, and I'm singing lead, and then we have Brian Shoemaker. He actually on this track and a couple other tracks he played lead guitar guitar. It's acoustic guitar and bass as well, which he plays live with us all the time.
And he also sang backup vocals. And then we have Woodstock. He goes by Woodstock and he plays mandolin. And then we have Sam Hess on the drum kit.
And we had some guest players on this song. In particular, it was Kate Lee Bryant, who played violin and she plays on I think five tracks on the album. And Aaron Price played keyboards. He played organ, piano and synthesized accordion.
And then we had Derek Johnson, who I mentioned before, who was one of the owners of Side House Records. He played trombone on the song Music Man. It's the great is the true grits, right? I say, yes, it's the true grits.
How long have you guys been together since 2014? So I guess that's coming up on nine years. Pretty stable line up there. Yeah, it's been us for the whole time.
Yeah, so that's unusual. Yeah, we play very part time so we don't get on each other's nerves. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's got to be a lot of solo stuffs.
Get up, bump with your seat. Come and dance with me. Gotta move to the beat. Race on destiny.
Synchronize arson. Yellow fading spit. Whiskey, where we get out. Shit is starting to fly.
Yeah, Hurricane Desire, I wrote that about just how sometimes love affair can be kind of toward and feel like a storm has gone through your life. Yeah. And that's basically what that song is about. It's just and how it can, like even though it starts out like that, sometimes it can end up being okay, like if things can work out, but then other times it's just a disaster.
But that's basically that song's deal and Aaron Price played on that tune, like the piano and organ. I like the piano. I made a note that I really like the piano on that one. Yeah, he is so good.
He's incredible. He's probably on a lot of records in this town. Oh, yeah. And his own stuff too.
Tell me about it. It doesn't have to be your favorite, but just tell me about a book that you recommend to people. I would probably say, um, Hemingway Islands in the stream, because it takes you, you're in Cuba. You're in, it's just, I just love the way he writes.
And it takes you, he's in Cuba. There's, there's some scenes from World War. And I think I'm remembering this, right? I hope I don't get a couple of his books that you used, but that's one of my favorites.
There's not a lot of wars. There's not a lot of wars. I think Luke Skywalker come along. Yeah.
I love those books and like, he's, he's written, I also love a lot of an rice. I just like the way the images she creates in her books. And of course, The Lord of the Rings books. I like a lot of fantasy and sci-fi.
And, uh, uh, let's see. You just said one book. Yeah. Oh, you can, you can narrow it down.
That's okay. I thought you would say, I ran there for a second. Oh, no. Oh, great.
Sorry. I read that. Well, don't bother. More from Stephen Evans of Stephen Evans and the True Grits in just a few moments.
One of the reminds you, you can find their latest album, Buzz of Bees, at all the streaming services. And you can visit Stephen Evans music.com for all kinds of information on Stephen Evans and Stephen Evans and the True Grits, including live shows that got Stephen does a lot of live shows, especially lately. I don't know what's gotten into him, to be honest with you. So look for that.
And, um, yeah, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, WNC Original Music, wherever you get your podcast, or go to wnciristlemusic.com. Corrections and clarifications from last week's episode with Ivy Eld, uh, Creep is a song by Radiohead, but somehow it has something to do with Nixon getting reelected. So we were both right. Nashville, Tennessee's Josh Gray has a new album out called Walk Alone.
Here is my review. For some reason, whenever I listen to an album, one of the first things I think about is whether the song would be good as an instrumental. So like, would the melody be strong enough that it doesn't depend on the lyrics? It doesn't always have to be that way to be a good song.
Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan, you know, has a very monotonous melody, but it's still a great song. But on Josh Gray's new album, Walk Alone, every song is just melodically very solid. You could replace his voice with a saxophone or what a harmonica or a sousaphone, and it would still be, you know, a very, very good song. It's better with his vocals.
Don't get me wrong. It's also lyrically a strong album. So it's good that it's not using a sousaphone. The lyrics are personal, but also universal because it's kind of thing that, you know, every person might feel.
And it's also, there's a lot of stuff about what's just going on in the world today, but not in a beat you over the head with it kind of way. The album starts with the track Radio Stations. Scott just a great driving beat, but it doesn't last very long because Josh starts singing within about 15 seconds. It doesn't have time for, you know, fooling around, bamping and stuff.
He lists his grievances about the music industry and other parts of society, but it's not with bitterness or anger. It's about, you know, kind of a contempt for how things are, homage to how things used to be, and determination about overcoming them. So it's a hopeful song. I would describe it as an anthem for the masses who do not want to be treated like the masses.
I think most albums, if you have a strong driving, fast first track slows it down, but out on the second track, but not Josh Gray. The album's title track is Moody and Dynamic. It's what I think of as an advice track. It's like the gambler, but from someone who doesn't die at the end, spoiler alert for people who've never heard the gambler.
The song Cheyenne, I can imagine this being on a soundtrack of the movie I like, and I stopped the movie halfway through to look up what the song is. And it'll still do the song a few times. Maybe I get back to the movie, but maybe I just keep listening to this song and the rest of the soundtrack. It tells a pretty good story about self.
This might be a bit cryptic, which just makes it more interesting. Listening through the first half of the album, I started to think, you know, maybe the instrumentation is getting a little routine, but that's when money or blood comes on, and that just throws that right out the window. It's a hard driving country rock song. I think of it almost as cowpunk if it was a little faster.
And I really like the way Josh's vocals, it's hard to explain their energetic, but kind of plaintiff, but then the lead guitar on this is screaming, it's screaming kind of in the background, and it's just a very interesting contrast between the two. So very good, very good effect. One thing I think this album could have used was a little more vocal harmony. I do love vocal harmonies mainly because I can't do them very well myself, but I love vocal harmonies, and there's hardly any on this album except for at the very last track.
It's called Building Paradise and Josh sings it with Morgan Connors. And I might not even notice that the album is so strong. I might not have even noticed the lack of vocal harmonies, except for this track kind of reminded me of it. It's a really cool track, a ballad, and it reminds me a lot of the country duets of the 70s, a lot like George Jones and Tammy Winette and Dolly Parton and Porter Wagner.
I think it would fit in with any of those and hold up very well. In fact, the whole album holds up well. Forget what I said about the vocal harmonies. That's just personal preference.
The whole album is strong, and I suggest you go out and listen to it today. Walk Alone by Josh Gray. This is Emma M. Alard.
This is Tyler M. Alard. And we are the Ghost of Liberty, and you are listening to WNC Original Music. That's clear.
And that's clear. I wrote that during the quarantine of COVID, and I just wrote it about sometimes I have a feeling that I'm going to meet somebody new, and it usually comes true, not always. I'm not clairvoyant by any means. But when the buzzabees think it's totally about spring and how the renewal of spring after wintertime, you wouldn't know it this year, because it's all this kind of mission mesh together, winter and spring mixed together.
But yeah, that's basically what that song is about. And Aaron Price does another fantastic job on this record. Joining us. And it's the title track.
Choose it just based on, I mean, that's a really cool title. Yeah, and I just wanted it to be the theme of the song, like renewal, theme of the album, sorry. And it was my newest song too, so I was most excited about it. So it's like spring?
Yeah, pretty much. Have you noticed how your songwriting has changed over the years? Yes, yes. At first, when I, a lot of the songs that we recorded early on, and I played on your podcast last time, were songs that I had already written before I met the band.
So they were written in a style of like, but I was used to like, it was more of a rock style, more dark, moody rock. And as I've lived here longer and played with this band, longer, we've developed more of a folk rock, almost alt-country sound, incorporating, you know, some Appalachian instrument like the mandolin, of course, in in in Kate's violin. So I write more, I guess, in that vein, these days, just because that's what I've become more attracted to, to that sound, that acoustic organic kind of sound. When you bring a song to the band, does it ever look very different?
What's the band kind of finishes, kind of locks in what the band does? Do you think, oh, this sounds a little different than what I was hearing, but I like it better? Definitely. Usually with the rhythm section, they do something that I'm like, oh my gosh, I like that a lot better with the rhythm, gives it more life, like especially with certain songs that just came alive when they put their part, put their energy into it.
And yeah, definitely that happens a lot. Be wild. Yeah, get out there. Be wild.
It's, you know, I'm an influencer now. Oh, yes. Getting. No, I wrote that somehow.
It's almost like I had a premonition of the quarantine because I wrote that before COVID came along. I'm not clairvoyant, I promise. It's basically it was kind of a pep talk to myself to get out there and stop moving around and do things and experience stuff. You know, when you start getting older, you start thinking, oh, I can't do as much anymore.
You start getting in that kind of headspace when really it's just not true. It might be a little more painful, but you can still get out there and do things. And that song is just about, trying to get yourself motivated and get out there and experience things. How about a movie recommendation?
Should I give you these beforehand, but I like to surprise people with them? Well, I've spent a lot of time in the service industry as well as to help pay the bills. And I saw, probably don't forget the names, I'm terrible at remembering names of things. It was the movie about the chef who invites people to the island.
Oh, yeah. It's called menu. Yes. For the menu.
It was a really strange movie, but I thought it was it was very good because I thought it could even been a play like it didn't have to be on screen. It definitely could have been a play. And it had a lot of good messages, even though it was very weird and a little bit violent. But I think it had a lot of good social messages in it.
Not like movies that have that, they're not just there to entertain you. They have something to say. That's why I like that movie. I relate to it a little bit being in not just like the restaurant industry, but the music industry as well.
Because a lot of people, you come across a lot of judgmental people and situations in the art industry. Are you talking about me? No, not you. Never.
Okay, big thanks to Stephen Evans for being on the podcast this week. This is part one. I'll have part two coming up sometime in the future. Listen to Stephen's voice.
He's obviously got a very strong voice, but listen to him when he hits those high notes and that's sustained that he's hitting and he's keeping that note totally in tune for any play live. And that's not effects. That Stephen's voice. He's really got it.
Don't forget to find his album Buzz of Bees at all their streaming services and at Stephen Evans music.com. Subscribe to the podcast, WNC Original Music, wherever you get your podcast. And don't forget to get Josh Gray's new album at Josh Gray music.com. It's a semi-traditional podcast that whenever possible, we use an associate of the main character, so to speak, to do the closing song.
And this week, we're delighted to have a friend of Stephen Evans, David G. Warren. You can find David and his music at GreenGoNonsense.com. Here is his song, The Hard Way.
Have a good week.